I have called someone the wrong name for 3 years!

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Cringe - just found this out.

Ive been under a consultant for 3 years and since him x4 times a year plus regular phone calls every couple of weeks / months and called him Mark in every single phone call and meeting and appointment…..
to be fair my original letter said I would be seen by Dr Mark xxxx or one of his team. The clinic is very first name terms and in all these appointments I have called him Mark and thanked him as in …. thanks Mark.
Thinking he was Dr Mark xxxxxx I realised we had mutual friends who would often say, are you seeing Mark - say hello and pass on my regards etc these are people he works with. My consultant has always listened to this and passed his regards back. I was seen in June and have been referred to another consultant in a different department and was asking about the letter with his secretary when she told me I have never seen Dr Mark xxxxx and I’m not in his letters. I have been seeing Dr Nick xxxx 😂🤦‍♀️and I have always seen him despite my letter saying Dr Mark / he is another consultant in the team. His wonderful secretary was trying to figure it all out and then informed me - oh my god! I meanwhile shall go and sit in my shed.

Years ago I called someone Jane for years and then got a wedding invite for Sarah and yes she was indeed a Sarah and had never been called Jane by anyone other than me …….

The consultant one makes complete sense and was just a mix up. He should have corrected you.
I have no idea how you can know someone well enough to be invited to their wedding, and not know their name though!! Surely you’d spoken to mutual friends about Jane/Sarah at some point?! Or was this a friendship that existed in a complete vacuum with no other people? I can’t imagine how this happened!!

So who did Dr Nick think these mystery shared acquaintances were then? 😂

Dont worry about it. I called my postie by the wrong name for 10+ years. He only corrected me when he retired. He thought it was funny.

There is only one way out of this. Next time you see him, you narrow your eyes and ask in a very pointed manner: "Why have you been pretending to be Mark all this time?"

Then wait for him to explain himself.

Haha exactly this!

I called a guy at work Stuart for months. Despite him wearing a name badge which I clearly never looked at.
Another colleague said he was just going to go over and have a word with Mark. I asked who Mark was. He pointed towards Stuart. We argued for 10 minutes about his name, then we decided to go and ask him.
His name was actually Colin 🤣🤣

I have nothing to add except thank you all for making me have a proper giggle.

Mannamasandra?

I learned that I've been getting name wrong for longer than that this weekend. An old man and his dog, who I see most weekends for a chat and a coffee. I've been getting their names round the wrong way!

The Doctor thing is weird and bloody unprofessional.

For THREE years he didn't correct you when you called him by the name of a colleague, and even passed his regards on to your friends, knowing full well they thought he was a different man?

I'd be having very sharp words with him and trying to get to the bottom of it.

It's anything but funny really.

My DDad had this when he was working. He had customers call him John regularly but his name is Bob. His boss would correct them if they asked for their regards to be passed to John but they always, and we're talking 30+ years , called him John!
My DH has this from one of our clients. I correct the client but my DH tells me he always calls him Keith (DH has a K name but it doesn't sound anything like Keith)!

Oh dear. I called my son's friend's dad Lee for years. One day I was talking to his wife and she said "actually his name is Luke". Why he had never mentioned it I do not know.

An acquaintance of mine that I occasionally bump into at the shops calls me Debbie (nothing like my actual name). I've known this bloke for about 10 years. Too late to correct him. I feel like Rodney out of Only Fools and Horses.

Poor bloke 😂

My husband has an unusual name. Over the years we've laughed as he's been called probably 7/8 completely different names by different people. It's become a bit of an in joke now to figure out what name will be written on our Christmas cards!

My neighbour called me Jeanette for years and even addressed my christmas cards to that name.
I did correct her a few times but gave up as she still kept doing it even though I obviously signed her card with my correct name. My name doesnt even begin with J !

LakeTiticaca

That's funny, someone asked why you don't correct people, I always feel terrible doing so. It's feels like I'm calling them idiots and makes me feel embarrassed, which is totally weird

We used a take away far too regularly.. Even considered using him for wedding catering. Kevin was a fab bloke. And his food even better..
Except years later we heard his dm calling him Alex....

😂😂😂😂

I had a customer at work who I saw regularly over several years who called me the wrong name. I corrected her every time but she was one of those people who would ask a question if only to hear her own voice and give her opinion - she wasn't actually interested in anything I had to say. She never actually paid attention when I corrected her a million times. I just gave up trying after a few years.

Jane, I met at work and then bumped into her and called her Jane and we went for a coffee etc her number was saved as Jane - I sent her birthday and Christmas cards to Jane and she replied as Jane. I was good friends with her in days before SM etc

but the wedding invite was her actual name Sarah and she is a Sarah and never been called anything else but the card was printed so she said err … I’ve got something to tell you - I’m Sarah not Jane. She is a lovely woman and just hadn’t thought to correct me and treated it as a nickname. She said by the time we were three or four meetings in she liked me and I her and she didn’t want to embarrass me 😆🤦‍♀️

I have a feeling his secretary will be telling him ….

Glad it isn’t just me - I also have a tendency to take my glasses off as it is better to read paperwork then keep them on - so badges can be difficult to read but reading paperwork is excellent

I knew someone by a wrong first name for about three years, was corrected by a friend of theirs, started using the correct name, response was as if I had been using the correct name all along.

Since childhood have been visiting a place near to mum's house, knew it by the wrong name until last year.